Group wants to eliminate ‘human black silhouette’ targets (VIDEO)

The No More Black Targets campaign argues that shooting ranges and instructors should not use “menacing” black targets, and is petitioning to end the practice, citing trigger bias.

“Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers,” notes the site for the campaign. “A disturbing potential correlation: The most popular target for shooters to learn to use their firearm is a black silhouette. Unconscious bias can be deadly.”

A Change.org petition by the group intends to call upon the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors to end the use of black silhouette targets.

The group references a study by University of Illinois researchers that concluded shooters were more likely to fire at a black target.

One of the researhers in that study, Yara Mekawi, told National Public Radio in 2015 that people were “quicker to shoot black targets with a gun relative to white targets with a gun. And…people were more trigger-happy when shooting black targets compared to shooting white targets.”

It is not the first proposal of its kind. In 2015 a lawmaker sought to ban the use of human silhouette targets in Pennsylvania for all but law enforcement use, arguing they perpetuate violence.

The No More Black Targets petiton had 18 signatures as of Feb. 17.

The group has also created a number of alternative designs rather than the traditional dark silhouette through an art collective.

I use sight-in targets myself. Personal preference, better for self evaluation over relatively many rounds.

I don’t know if I think human form targets are a good idea, I mean, giving the idea of partial credit for a shoulder-hit… martial shooting isn’t my department, but I think, hey, if you’re tight on a circle, you should be in as good of shape as possible for other things too, heaven forbid.

Police, meh, I support the locals right to tell them what to do, even if it’s silly. The idea of a state or locality banning human form targets for private shooters sickens me; typical frumpy, nosey, quaint PA garbage.

t_reese

For several years now I’ve used nothing but 9 inch white paper pie plates as target.
If you can put a mag full into a 9 inch circle at anything from 7 yards to 25 yards while under stress or time limit for practice, you’ll do fine in a real world gun fight. Been there done that!

TwoStrayCats

Black targets cause them to identify with being shot and this is what they strive-for. We must change that culture. Then they’ll grow up to become the dentists, lawyers, engineers and scientists they should be instead of getting 10-x’d.

ronin10

WTF???? What if we made targets shaped like cupcakes? Would they get all torn up about that?

DT

Do not, under any circumstance, bring my lovely cupcakes into this.

Commoncents

How about cute little kittens?

John Smith ✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒʳᵗᵉʳ

I think they’re okay with the “no hesitation” targets of pregnant women, elderly and children that DHS was buying under Obongo.

rrangel

You can’t get more stupid than this.

Not the one

Give them time they’ll prove you wrong. 🙂

Road

Indeed. Not even a lot of time. Hours.

Tom Doublin

Oh, just wait, I bet they can!

John Smith ✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒʳᵗᵉʳ

Actually, you can, such as thinking Guam might tip over or calling black holes “racist.” I won’t even mention getting butthurt over “niggardly” or “guerrilla.”

TwoStrayCats

But, no, they can. And they will.

GL Stitt

Now they are suggesting that if I practice with a black silhouette paper
target I am subconsciously programing myself to shoot black people?
I’ve shot more paper plate targets with a dot in the center than
anything else. That must be why I get an uneasy feeling when I walk down
the paper goods isle in Wal Mart. I’ll have to keep this in mind and be
careful not to lose control when I’m shopping for toilet paper. I might
freak out and massacre a bunch of innocent paper plates.

Not the one

Don’t watch any of the old Popeye cartoons you’ll start running around beating the crap out of people. LOL

Steve

Another idiotic “movement” designed to show gun enthusiasts as stupid people who cannot control themselves. That’s right, I can’t tell the difference between a black shooting target and a black person….My brain subconsciously thinks they are the same….Even my subconscious is stupid….

Not the one

I think they are right. I pretty sure my black target tried to rob me yesterday.

Steve

Then blow it’s friggin’ head off!!

Stainmaster Zinc

I had some target practice today. I settled for removing its nose.

DT

this “movement” is not designed to show enthusiasts as stupid… it is the exact opposite.

Commoncents

Oh, I’m sure in their minds it is supposed to convey that we’re stupid, but to any thinking person, it is, as you correctly stated, the exact opposite.

TwoStrayCats

Just be careful when you practice with white targets on a black background. Don’t miss!

Jeff Sobel

Hahahahahaha

Mike in Illinois

Black holes are racist too!

Not the one

It forgot to mention that young black men are 3x more likely to commit the crime that they get shot for. I’m not sure if this a real thing but it sure is funny as crap. No more black targets, lets switch it to rainbows and unicorns. Wait a minute. I have never been robbed by one of them. Not to mention I think I have only ever seen 10 black people in my life and they were African. All the others were brown skin. The targets are black, and the people whining about it are brown. Ignorance has no boundaries. I’m offended because people write on white paper. Even though I’m not an albino I’m still offended somehow.

Bad Penguin

This kind of BS isn’t new. During the Vietnam war the army started using targets that looked like Asians with AK-47’s. That was stopped because someone claimed it was racist.

Brad Dixon

Why not targets with Rainbows and Unicorns? My silhouette targets are blue. Just waiting for the blue guys to show up now to see if I get triggered.

sage419

Next time in Las Vegas, go see the Blue Man Group…

Tiru Maru

Good God. Only a politician could come up with this..
“In 2015 a lawmaker sought to ban the use of human silhouette targets in Pennsylvania for all but law enforcement use, arguing they perpetuate violence.”
Yeah. So lets make the police even more violent…

SaltyDog48

I personally use the green version of the qualification target. As yet I have not had ET or a man in black protest this use. I do confess to placing a stylized alien heart(s) in different places because you know these green men don’t have their heart(s) in the right place. Also I use human analog targets because I have yet to hear of a paper plate attacking someone. It could be of concern to artists that you are shooting at a future Salvador Dali.

amongoose

I used ta use faces on tha silhouette,
but I’ve run outta pics of ex-mother in law.

Stainmaster Zinc

How many pictures of the Hidlebeast do you have????

ToughLoveChiefsFan

When does sanity come back in style?

b4k9zp

It will never happen with the Democratic party!

John Smith ✓ᵀʳᵘᵐᵖ ˢᵘᵖᵖᵒʳᵗᵉʳ

Encourage them to go “full retard” early and often.

Walter Hargain

You have the right to be offended, just like I have the right not to give a shit about you being offended.

Stefan Benedito

Actually this is wrong. Didn’t you hear? America no longer cares about individual rights and liberty’s. America only caters to select groups now. Because black or excuse me African americans never commit crimes and all of us gun owners are trigger happy kkk members that enjoy putting the lotion on the skin. That’s the real reason African Americans are more likely to get shot not because they were doing something that warranted such a response.

Jack_A_Lope

Let’s use “baby Harp seal” targets instead!

b4k9zp

or “Dodo bird”, or “passenger pigeon” sillhouettes!

Jack_A_Lope

I suspect most SJWs care more for endangered species than humans anyway…Why not Harambe?

Lyle Berger

It’s a SILHOUETTE, get over your butt
hurt

Teddy

They did this in the mid 80’s here in Florida. I was in the police academy and the director came in with blue targets. He said the NAACP had sued because black targets can subconsciously cause more blacks to be shot by police. In reality, a gun pointed at me causes me to shoot and not the color of the person….. I joked “Won’t the blue cause me to shoot smurfs?”…lol

Walter Hargain

I can’t believe you would be so insensitive to joke about the Great Smurf Genocide where Gargamel slaughtered all those poor innocent smurfs to eat them and turn them into gold. That’s really smurfed up.

Stainmaster Zinc

What about The Blue Man Group? Are you hostile to them?????

vincewarde

I would like to point out IPSC and IDPA use squared off cardboard targets, which have the benefit of not being subject to this criticism. Like it or not, valid or not, being subjected to this kind of criticism does not do out cause any good…….

b4k9zp

Hogwash. This nonsense is totally motivated by racism of the Democratic party.

STLstudent

Surrender is stupid cowardice. The better course is to stand like men and resist. The fake Black Lives Matter narrative has done great harm to the USA.

Mike in Illinois

Hilariously, illinois law passed and bragged about by democrats and the NRA requires shooting at black silouette targets.

Isnt that special.

b4k9zp

How does the NRA require shooting at black silhouette targets? I’ve seen orange and yellow silhouette targets (on a contrasting background color) that are approved by the NRA.

Cknarf

I think for the live fire portion of the CCW test, we’re required to use the B-27 target, same as the Illinois State Police.

b4k9zp

Is that sponsored by the NRA, or one of its state affiliates? Or is it a requirement of the CCW law passed by your state?

Cknarf

It’s literally a requirement of the law. Unless things have changed since, I believe it remains the same.

Floyd D Barber

I was told the NRA forbids humanoid targets for their official training. Last official NRA class I took, milk bottle targets.

Bt Doctur

Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers

Dosent matter what color or race you are, point a gun or fire a gun at a Policeman and he is shooting back at you and will continue to shoot untill the threat is neutralized no matter how many bullets it takes.
Maybe because there more likely to be the ones carrying guns and committing crimes against citizens? So how about we make the targets white on black background.Cant to that ,the Whites would want to riot ,loot and burn the cities
It has to do with visability for target practice. Should all law enforcement do away with
there targets depicting a thug with a gun holding a hostage too?
When paper targets start committing the crimes we`ll take notice but untill then human perp targets will work just fine.

Omer Woodruff

Then you must remove the white part of the target too that so many seem to hit !

GB in TX

I think the targets should be various shades of brown and the clothing black, with the occasional NFL logo on a baseball cap. Just like real life. It is for practice, right?

Commoncents

And chains, gold chains around the neck…

PJD1992

Well blacks commit murder at 8-10 times the national rate so getting shot only 3 times more often seems mighty generous – or they are committing their murders amongst the unarmed…..

Ahh troublesome facts. Too bad these are kryptonite to moron lefties.

AARGH63

“Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers,” notes the site for the campaign. “A disturbing potential correlation…”

Correlation is not causation. Bet they’re 3X more likely to be involve in a violent crime. Now that’s causation!

DonWayne

Seriously? Black targets matter.

Patski762

Right now someone could make a killing selling white liberal snowflake targets.

Cory C

Hahahahahahaha!

Bad Penguin

Won’t sell. No one could stand all of the whining before getting to the range.

Oh horse hockey. All shadows are one color….Black. It has NOTHING to do with race. Only reason blacks think it is about race, is because all they see is black and white. Let me know when you see a “white” shadow.

Vindíctam Draconis

It is a freakin silhouette! look up the word. I have also burned up thousands of rounds long distance shooting at little tiny black targets shaped like little animals does that mean you are gonna get peta involved too? If you were training constantly on those targets that actually have pictures of people on them and all you used were black people then you might have an argument but for silhouette targets it’s just BS!

b4k9zp

RIGHT! The silhouette is colored black because in good lighting the shape is easier to see, not because it “triggers a response more readily”. SANE, RATIONAL people know that such a silhouette could represent a male or female human, with black, brown, white, or purple polka-dotted skin color. Totally unbiased except to racist Democrats’ limited mentality.

Mike Davila

Hah…hah….hah….. You just have to laugh at the sheer utter nonsense the left comes up with.

Stainmaster Zinc

I’m more likely to throw up.

b4k9zp

How ridiculous can they get? What utter, sheer and blatant nonsense!

Cory C

Wow, this is a new level of stupidity. For what it’s worth, I have never once considered that to be a target of a black person. I always just assumed it is a shadow of a white person. The face I imagine on it is a white man’s face. Had these guys never brought it up, it never would have occurred to me. Streisand effect in full effect?

Also, (spoiler alert), black people aren’t literally black.

Ronald Gunn

Does this mean shadows will have to be white now if it is a shadow of a white person? GOD why did you put so many stupid people on this planet?

ebd10

How about Brown targets? Would that be less offensive? Maybe Navy Blue? What about Mauve?

Sandy Beachman

Stupid fin people doing stupid fin shit.

IamThe Ghost

Another skewed study. If you click on blue link word “Study” it will take yu to a prior article where this is written:

“[We] coded the cities in which the data was collected by how permissive the gun laws were,” Mekawi said. “And we used the Brady Law campaign, which gives basically states a score … being very permissive, this means that, you know, they didn’t require background checks in the same way that other, more strict states might or have other limitations on who’s allowed to purchase a gun.”

Ronald Gunn

Will this madness ever end? Thankfully I’m getting up in age and hopefully the good lord will be calling me soon. At least I’ll be out of all this stupid shit.

Bryan Ogborn

Please. Please tell me this is satire.

J.E.Walker

The world keeps getting sillier and sillier. So Black people look like flat black paint? Since when???.

STLstudent

Will the leftist, politically correct, stupidity ever end? The reason “Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers” is because of the behavior of young black men. We must not submit to this insanity.

Robin Farrar

This is like the saying..you can’t fix stupid!!

Floyd D Barber

Where’s my phone? I’ve got to call bull$h!t.

Caroline OntheWillapa

Liberal insanity!

Kentc

I guess it should be a white silhouette on a black background.

alwaysright21

KEK is watching

Stanky

rainbows make good targets two!!

Don Stapp

Also get rid of snow – its too white and also the yellow one it’s bad! for real!

Andrew Benghazi

All cats are black at midnight.

Bossman470

Unless the target has gang tattoos an afro, sagging pants and holds it’s gun sideways, they don’t have a case.

Truth Hurts

Well of course blacks are getting shot way more often. They’re always out robbing, raping, and killing people way more often.

Richard

If they are going to get pissed at black silhouette targets, they would have an aneurism if they saw the RE factor tactical menace to society targets.

Stanley Goodspeed

A University of Illinois study indicated people are more likely to fire on the black target, really? I don’t suppose the aforementioned study also stated the fact that people would be far more likely to have just cause shooting a black target. Possibly even cross referencing the FBI’s uniform crime report which clearly shows that blacks account for approximately 54% of all violent crime.

John Watchman

“Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters”… hmm? Could it be the reciprocal relation of data showing that young black men are 4X more likely to be shot by trained shooters while they are involved in a criminal act, 4x more so than all other races combined.

John Watchman

If the silhouette had a cotton sack thrown over its shoulder, or a crack pipe in its mouth, or an EBT card in its pocket…well maybe… but it’s just standing there, so what’s the correlation that has them so upset. I can never figure out the logic behind liberal thought. I keep looking for it, but it just doesn’t show up. Triggered much?

david5300

People , what people

Tricky Dick

Being race obsessed to this point is most likely a psychological disorder and these people should be forced to undergo mental evaluations to determine if they’re a threat to themselves or society.

stylin19

“…quicker to shoot black targets with a gun relative to white targets with a gun. ”

if either have a gun, I’m shootin.

amongoose

“Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters”.
.
They are 6.5% of the population committing 50% of the crime, and whites at 60% of the population commit 30% of the crime, so what are you saying, that the ratio is too low?
Should we go for like 9-1?
Wouldn’t happen if you could find a way to reign them in?

Steven Daniel

Really all these left wing idiots need to get a job and a life they have way to much time on their hands sitting on their behinds collecting welfare and food stamps!!!!!!

Jim

This is yes pretty stupid YES……..

James McEnanly

Unless they are going around in ninja costumes and walking like gingerbread men, they are not going to look like the classic target silhouette. If they are going around dressed like ninjas, it can be assumed that they are up to no good

Deadeye

We should have black silhouette targets with afros , just to be sure of our target!

Joe Loyd

Funny, I have always preferred white targets so I can see the black hole left by my shot. Never entered my mind as to who the silhouette represented, only whether my shot was accurate or not.

Jmanjo

Shadows and silhouettes are black and do not belong to Afro-Americans so shut up! This is so foolish some numbskull fabricated this story as a joke! Probably a NBC staffer!

Ronald Gunn

I’ll say it again, YOU CAN”T FIX STUPID!!

MichaelZWilliamson

Causality has not been established. People are more likely to shoot a contrasting target, and it needs to be a silhouette that is reasonably found in action, not, say, orange. A white target on black might work, but again, there’s not establishment of causality in their alleged correlation, nor any supporting evidence for the claim.

Also, banning the use for all except police would only perpetuate the (mythical assumption) that cops are more likely to shoot black people.

Also, it would violate the First Amendment to tell me what I can pin on a board and shoot at.

Wow. I am so glad that gun violence reduction would be this easy. Right?

VariedResponse

“White Peers”?? Are you saying blacks are equal to whites? Bwaaaahahahahahaha!!!

Kevin O

“Young black men are 3X more likely to be shot by trained shooters than their white peers,”

Since young black men commit crimes at a much higher rate they should be happy they’re only being shot at 3x. I think we should make it mandatory that all targets be black including targets for BB guns and bow & arrow targets.

Anybody with any sense knows those targets represent ISIS. Just look at them.
These lunatics are actually defending Islamic murderers that rape women and throw gays off of buildings.
More evidence that liberalism is a mental disease.

This is the dumbest thing I’ve read for Monday so far, the polls are still out though as it is early.

Richard Cerino

What a joke. That must mean that books are racist because the ink is black printed on white paper. Why does the paper get to be the white!!!

Richard Cerino

What a joke. That must mean that books are racist because the ink is black printed on white paper. Why does white get to be the paper!!!

Some Rabbit

First they came for the black lawn jockeys…

TwoStrayCats

By this argument, it would be far better for young, black, men to be at large in a population of untrained shooters then.

Lord Humongous

Yeah, because every time I shoot at a black silhouette target, the first thing I associate it with is shooting a black man. This is a ridiculous pursuit of a solution to a problem that does not exist.

ArmedPatriot

Oh grow the fkc up, snowflakes.
You whiningasslittlebitches will cry about anydamned irrelevantshit you can think up.

Amber Bandicoot

How many guys on YouTube shoot at watermelons?

Bad Penguin

Funny thing is there are very few ” black” people in America. African Americans are almost exclusively various shades of Brown. No one I know is shooting brown targets.

Amber Bandicoot

At least not stationary ones…

DonM

Here’s a question for the brain surgeons of No More Black Targets – what colour is the silhouette of a white person?

Take a minute, i’m sure it’ll come to you … (smdh)

Joe Black

Fuck you and your “black art”.

Keith_Indy

#BLACKTARGETSMATTER heh

Richard Herrington

Since blacks commit the majority of gun related crimes… I think using black targets is justified. Know the enemy.

Not the one

It seems we have reached an impasse. They want to eliminate black paper targets. And I want to eliminate the black people who creating the crimes I have to practice shooting at the black paper targets for.

Victor Cachat

The targets I use are round and smaller than a human head.
That means I can hit someone between the eyes if I want to.

smartacusⓊ

Why is it illegal for us to throw them in jail for even daring to think like that?
Why is it illegal to make them room temperature for daring to think like that?
Why is it almost illegal (already illegal in Sweden) for us to disagree with them?

John

To be honest, you should not get used to shooting a uniform target, be it black, white or purple. You need to be able to hit all shapes and colors as your target might be a bear running at you, a half eaten zombie or a guy wearing a pink baseball cap hiding behind an orange chair firing at you with a bright green gun. Don’t just train for one scenario.

Floyd D Barber

Not an NRA function/class.

Mike in Illinois

The NRA sure did TRY to have itself be the ONLY allowed “trainers” (saw that language in the proposed bill myself with my own eyes, which was promptly removed due to….pissing people off). FUNCTION? The ENTIRE process is a function of the NRA and Democrat partnership that brought this foolishness to our doorsteps in the first place – BOTH stood together BRAGGING about this pathetic permission slip structure they were so happy to create.

The NRA has to have approved curriculum juuust like all the others doing the training, who hilariously go through NRA training.

As for the LAW –

“at a B-27 silhouette target approved by the Department.”

SO what is your point? That the NRA classes shot at mil bottles? Or that NRA classes don’t have to use silhouettes.

JoeP.

Don’t they realize it’s the Black Panthers that cause this supposed behavior?

Platorian

Yeah lets change everything for them please………………….There good boys!!

Chilibreath

Just a suggestion, but I think if you do a quick online search you will find that Blacks have a higher (quantifiable) per capita ratio of committing crimes of violence and robberies across the board, which means that even if the actual number of similar crimes committed by Whites is higher, the percentage of the Black population that commit similar crimes is statistically higher. What the take away of this is socially or factually for law enforcement I will leave to the bean counters, but as a retired big city LEO I am aware of where the threats lie when I go to certain parts of town as opposed to other parts of town. I’m just being real and factual… not racial or prejudice, being a minority myself I have a vested interest in keeping the discussion honest when it comes to facts, stats and numbers when it comes to crime.

FarePlay

Another example of a special interest group drawing a nexus to racism based on nothing.
Please, please show me any study that draws a correlation between shooting black silhouette targets and the shooting of black men.

Marius Quentical

Heck…it’s not like the targets are printed with nappy “haids” and big butts! What do you want? White images on black backgrounds? That wouldn’t be consistent with the race that commits more crimes than any other……the dark race.

Joseph Turgeon

This doesn’t really make sense. Black people aren’t really “black”. That’s just an expression. They are brown. We should eliminate brown targets, if anything.